the people were of one mind. Then the king thought that he would try
a different way. Shiploads of tea were sent over to New York, Boston,
Philadelphia, and Charleston, If the tea should be landed and sold,
then every man who bought a pound of it would have to pay six cents
more than the regular price. That six cents was a tax, and it went
into the king's pocket. The people said, We won't pay that six cents.
When the tea reached New York, the citizens sent it back again to
England. They did the same thing at Philadelphia. At Charleston they
let it be landed, but it was stored in damp cellars. People would
not buy any of it any more than they would buy so much poison, so
it all rotted and spoiled. At Boston they had a grand "tea-party."
A number of men dressed themselves up like Indians, went on board
the tea-ships at night, broke open all the chests, and emptied the
tea into the harbor.

[Illustration: THE BOSTON "TEA-PARTY."]

133. The king closes the port of Boston; Congress meets at
Philadelphia; the names American and British; what General Gage
tried to do.--The king was terribly angry; and orders were given that
the port of Boston should be closed, so that no ships, except the
king's war-ships, should come in or go out. Nearly all trade stopped
in Boston. Many of the inhabitants began to suffer for want of food,
but throughout the colonies the people tried their best to help them.
The New England towns sent droves of sheep and cattle, New York sent
wheat, South Carolina gave two hundred barrels of rice; the other
colonies gave liberally in money and provisions. Even in England much
sympathy was felt for the distressed people of Boston, and in London
a large sum of money was raised to help those whom the king was
determined to starve into submission.

The colonies now sent some of their best men to Philadelphia to
consider what should be done. As this meeting was made up of those
who had come from all parts of the country, it took the name of the
General or Continental Congress.[14]

About this time, too, a great change took place; for the people
throughout the country began to call themselves Americans, and to
speak of the English troops that the king sent over here as British
soldiers.

In Boston General Gage had command of these soldiers. He knew that
the Americans were getting ready to fight, and that they had stored
up powder and ball at Concord,[15] about twenty miles from Boston.
One night he secret